Kolhapur Airport to get a new terminal building and ATC tower

The foundation stone for a new terminal building and ATC Tower at Kolhapur Airport in Maharashtra has been reportedly laid by Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu. Spread across 3,900 sq m, the new terminal building is expected to be built at a cost of Rs 2.75 billion.

The new terminal is expected to host more passengers with a peak hour handling capacity of 300 people. There will be 10 check-in-counters in the new terminal at Kolhapur Airport. The new terminal building is expected to be constructed considering sustainability features. The terminal will be built with eco-friendly sustainable building material, LED lighting, a sewage treatment plant and solar photo vottaic system.

Kolhapur is set to be connected with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tirupati under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN. Besides Kolhapur Airport, eight airports in Maharashtra are covered under RCS, namely Amravati, Gondia, Nashik, Jalgaon, Nanded, Solapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. Under RCS-UDAN scheme, there are 103 operational airports including greenfield ones. Over 120 million domestic air passengers flew in 2018. In 22 months of UDAN, 69 unserved airports, 31 heliports and six water dromos received bids from airlines, 38 RCS are operational.

After closing the airport for nearly six years, the Kolhapur Airport was reportedly opened for operations in April 2018.